Ace D. Portgaz
Ace D. Portgaz (エース・D・ポートガス, Ēsu D. Pōtogasu), born as Ace D. Gol (エース・D・ゴール, Ēsu D. Gōru) and nicknamed "Fire Fist Ace" (火拳のエース, Hiken no Ēsu), was the adopted older brother of Luffy D. Monkey, Sabo, Natsu Dragneel, Erza Scarlet, and Gray Fullbuster, and son of the late King of the Pirates, Roger D. Gol and his lover, Rouge D. Portgaz. He was adopted by Garp D. Monkey as wished by Roger to him before his birth. Ace was the 2nd division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates and one-time captain of the Spade Pirates. Hunted by the World Government for his lineage, Ace ultimately met his end two years before the timeskip after being captured and sentenced to death, which resulted in the Battle of Navyford in an all out clash of powers. Ace was freed, but he sacrificed his life to protect his younger brother from Akainu, who was a Navy admiral at the time. Ace's bounty was 550,000,000 Berries. Appearance Although they were not blood related, Ace looked remarkably like his foster brother, Luffy. However, Ace was more serious looking than Luffy's lighthearted design, and was also slightly taller and more muscular. He also sported rather childish freckles (inherited from his mother), and tended to make an incredulous facial expression by raising his left eyebrow. Interestingly, his facial features were almost akin to his biological father Roger D. Gol in his youth without his mustache. His age is 20, height is 185 cm. (6'1") and his birthday is January 1. Ace's tattoos were among his most remarkable, trademark features. He had a tattoo on his back of the Whitebeard symbol — purple bones formed in a cross behind a purple skull with a white mustache — that he described as his pride and joy. Ace had another tattoo on his upper left bicep that spells "ASCE" vertically. The "S" crossed out is a tribute to Sabo as that's his jolly roger. On the cover of Chapter 596 indeed, Ace's tattoo is written as "ACE" instead of the original "ASCE" as the cover is a "what if" image of Ace, Luffy, and Sabo together as adults with the latter being still alive. Ace wore an open-front shirt until he received Whitebeard's tattoo - afterwards, he stopped wearing anything over his upper body except when on winter islands. He wore black boots, black knee-length shorts with an eyelet-studded orange belt, and a blue pouch belted around his left leg. He also wore a short second belt with a large red "A" on the silver buckle over his right hip, but left it unfastened and threaded the free end along the back of his shorts. A dagger in a green sheath hung at his left hip. On Ace's left arm, he wore a Eternal Compass and a red and white striped bracelet around his wrist, an orange elbow guard, and his "ASCE" tattoo. He wore a red beaded necklace and an orange hat with two blue smileys, one frowning and one smiling, and a string of red beads sitting above the rim. Two long orange side straps hung down sides of his hat and met at a large medallion of a bull's skull with orange tassels. Unfortunately, Ace lost his trademark hat, which he already had when he began his journey as a pirate, on Thriller Bark as a result of his duel with Blackbeard. His knife was also apparently confiscated, as he no longer had it in his next appearance as a prisoner at Impel Down. The tattoo upon his back that he took so much pride in was later destroyed by the same blow that eventually led to his death. However, at his grave, Ace's hat and knife were placed at his tombstone — either they were retrieved, or they were duplicates in Ace's possession. The Young Past Days As a child, Ace is shown to have often worn t-shirts with two-kanji phrases on the front (such as "innocence" and "violence"). On some occasions they are linked to the scene in which they were worn, like "independence" when the three brothers built their own tree house to live in. He often wore knee-length shorts and a black elbow guard on his left arm. Ace was always seen wearing dark brown, flat, slipper-like shoes, and in the winter, he wore a green cardigan over his normal clothes. Gallery Personality Ace was much more intelligent, polite, and generally more bearable than Luffy, which prompted the Straw Hat Pirates to question whether he was truly related to their captain. While several people who knew Roger D. Gol noted Luffy is quite similar to the late King of the Pirates, Whitebeard himself claimed that Ace's personality was not at all like his father's. It seems that among the very few things the brothers shared was their recklessness as pirates (and their near-bottomless stomachs). In addition, Ace liked to party as much as his brother does. When he boarded Buggy's ship, he was drawn by the smell of food and decided to enjoy himself while he was there. Ace could be a bit vulgar though as he once used a woman's skirt to wipe his face while he was dining at Spice Bean in Alabasta. There were two running gags about Ace. The first was his rather extreme narcolepsy. He tended to randomly fall asleep while eating and conversing, leaving strangers around him wondering if he had died. This was first seen in Alabasta when they thought he died in the middle of eating. The second was that he did a "dine and dash" routine wherever he went. This went back to his younger days with Sabo and Luffy, when they would often dine and dash in the city of Goa. His "politeness" is due to Makino's teaching after Ace asked her how to introduce himself to Shanks and Tiger (being his brother's saviors). Before that, Ace was rather cold and rude to anyone he was not familiar with. As the son of Roger, he lived in his shadow and is to date the first D. depicted to truly question his own right to exist, while displaying the fewest commonly seen D. related traits. Ace seemed to have lifelong problems dealing with his parentage, even after denouncing Roger D. Gol and accepting Whitebeard as his only father. This was in direct contrast to Luffy, who accepted his father's identity immediately upon learning it and did not seem to care when he was told how dangerous of a man he was. However, Luffy did not grow up with knowledge or identity (or even existence) of his father. Ace believed that it was natural if he were to really die as nobody in the world wanted the son of the devil (Roger) to live. Ace commented upon his own death that he had never sought fame or fortune - all he had wanted was the answer to his lifelong question of whether or not he should have been born, as this was the only thing preventing him from dying with no regrets as he and Luffy had vowed to do so and the fact he had a younger brother to look out for. Ace's only regret was that he would not live to see Luffy achieve his dream, which he believed Luffy undoubtedly would accomplish as he was his little brother. Ace had a tendency to never back down from a fight, saying that he would never run once facing an enemy. Because of this, some people believed that Ace had a death wish, but in truth he wanted to prevent people he cared for from getting hurt. Dadan stated that he inherited this tendency from his father, Roger D. Gol, despite loathing him. While Ace emerged victorious over enemies he refused to run from, such as Porchemy and Bluejam, his stubbornness hurt him on a number of occasions, particularly when he refused to back down against Blackbeard or Admiral Akainu. Ace was also easily provoked by and became violent towards anyone who insulted or harmed people close to him. In one of Garp's conversations with Dadan Curly, this was revealed to be a trait of Roger as well. During his childhood, Ace had a tendency to severely injure anyone who insulted Roger, though he himself disliked his biological father. After hearing about Sabo's presumed death at the hands of a World Noble, Ace quickly became bent on killing the Noble and Dadan had to pin Ace down and tie him to a tree to stop him. Ace's temper got the better of him, especially in cases when Whitebeard, proclaimed by Ace to be his only father, was insulted. Believing that this was the case when Blackbeard broke the iron rule of the Whitebeard Pirates and fled after murdering a crew mate, Ace pursued his traitorous subordinate despite his crew mates' efforts and even Whitebeard's orders to stop him. Ace later came to see that his stubbornness had gotten him into the ordeal of being scheduled for execution. Even though he managed to escape death on the scaffold thanks to the pirates' and Luffy's efforts at Navyford and was well on his way to freedom, Admiral Akainu got to him by insulting Whitebeard. Ace quickly turned back to face him, ignoring his crew mates' warnings to not become angered over Akainu's provocations. Unwilling to let him get away of speaking ill of Whitebeard, Ace attacked him out of fury only to have his arm burned by Akainu's Cursed Fruit powers. Akainu then took the opportunity to attack Luffy on the sideline, leading Ace to jump in, sacrificing his life to shield Luffy from the attack. While saying his last words, Ace sadly admitted to Luffy that he (Ace) wasted away all of his efforts to rescue him. Relationships Friends/Allies *Red-Haired Pirates **"Red-Haired" Shanks *Fairy Tail **Natsu Dragneel **Lucy Heartfilia **Happy *Straw Hat Pirates **Zolo Roronoa **Nami **Usopp **Sanji **Chopper Tony Tony **Robin Nico **Franky **Brook *Buggy Pirates **Buggy *Kuja Pirates **Hancock Boa *Jimbei Family *Roger D. Gol (father) *Rouge D. Portgaz (mother) *Tiger D. Monkey (adopted father) *Dragon D. Monkey (adopted uncle) *Garp D. Monkey (adopted grandfather) *Makino (1st foster mother) *Dadan Curly (2nd foster mother) *Natsu Dragneel (adopted brother) *Erza Scarlet (adopted sister) *Gray Fullbuster (adopted brother) *Luffy D. Monkey (adopted brother) *Sabo (adopted brother) Neutral *Warlords of the Sea **Kuma Bartholomew **Crocodile *Navy **Chaser Smoker Rivals *Natsu Dragneel *Erza Scarlet *Gray Fullbuster *Luffy D. Monkey *Sabo Enemies *Baroque Works *Blackbeard Pirates **Teech D. Marshall *World Government *Navy Abilities and Powers As commander of the 2nd division of the Whitebeard Pirates, Ace had authority over the lower-ranking subordinates. In addition, as one of the top commanders of the Whitebeard Pirates, he was one of the strongest and most highly-regarded pirates on board under Whitebeard himself. At one point, while being captain of the Spade Pirates, he was even asked to join the Seven Warlords of the Sea but refused. Luffy comments on how he never defeated Ace in a single fight, despite Luffy already having the power of the Gum-Gum Fruit (Ace did not consume the Flame-Flame Fruit until after he left: Luffy was surprised by Ace's new power when Ace stopped Smoker from capturing him in Nanohana). Ace was trained by Garp, who had hoped to turn him into a fine Marine, and possibly Dadan, the two of whom were responsible for training Luffy to the level of power he held before becoming a pirate. Ace also held a fearsome reputation. It was revealed that Ace received an invitation to join the Seven Warlords of the Sea while he was still captain of the Spade Pirates, though he refused the offer. After he joined the Whitebeard Pirates, a civilian was seen commenting on how Ace's strength was supposedly "outta this world". The World Government granted Blackbeard the position of Seven Warlords of the Sea after he successfully defeated and captured Ace. His overall reputation and abilities had earned him a bounty of 550,000,000 berries prior to his capture and death. He was also a capable navigator, as he was seen wearing a Eternal Compass on his left wrist, while travelling island to island in search for Luffy and Blackbeard on a simple raft. Physical Abilities Aside from the powers granted by the Cursed Fruit he consumed, Ace possessed immense physical strength. Signs of his great physical potential were already evident at his early childhood, where he was able to beat some local thugs who spoke ill of his father "half to death", and was also shown sitting on top of a huge animal (possibly a bull) he killed with his staff, during his first meeting with Luffy. Also later on the same day he was shown to easily break a giant tree with ease. Ace was already very strong when he left his hometown, three years before Luffy did the same. Ace demonstrated his strength during his battle with Blackbeard: he was able to take Blackbeard's punches, which were so powerful that the first made Ace cough up blood and the second nearly broke his neck, and retaliate. Van Augur noted that, as expected of the Whitebeard Pirates 2nd division commander, Ace's basic combat skills were quite formidable even without his Devil Fruit powers. He fought equally with Jimbei in the past; they nearly killed each other in a fight that lasted for five days. Ace then survived a battle with Whitebeard that took place immediately after, showing immense stamina and durability. He was one of the few people to be able to take a "baptizing" in boiling water in Impel Down without flinching, which is considered an impressive feat. Cursed Fruit Ace ate the Cursed Fruit Flame-Flame Fruit, a Logia-type fruit that allows him to become the element of fire and control the flames from his body, giving him his reputation as "Fire Fist Ace". Ace displayed his immense power by destroying a handful of Baroque Works ships with ease. His main style is to launch columns of fire by punching, with his signature "Fire Fist". He is also immune to normal physical strikes, all of which will simply phase through his fire-composed body. For some reason, Ace did not seem to mind his inability to swim. He traversed the seas in a one-man boat that seems to have been specifically designed for him, propelling it with flames from his feet. He skilfully sent his boat underwater as he leaped over the Billions fleet, timing it precisely so that it emerged underneath him just before he hit the water on the other side. Also, when he turned up on Drum Island, no snow fell at all on the island for an entire day. Later after his death, it was revealed that Ace's burning fists also had the ability to annihilate entire cities. Haki While not portrayed in the main storyline, it was revealed in a flashback that Ace possesses King Conqueror's Haki, which at the time he had no conscious control over. Ace first demonstrated the ability at 10 years of age, when he knocked the Bluejam Pirates crew unconscious after an outburst of rage (only Bluejam himself remained conscious from the Haki release, and he was a high-tier of East Blue at the time). Much as Luffy used his Haki to knock out a crowd of Kuja warriors, Ace used his Haki to knock out the attacking members of Bluejam's pirate crew. Ace was first shown to have knowledge about it when during the Battle in Navyford, he witnessed Luffy unknowingly unleash his Haki and remarked "You too?". He was never seen using it as he only relied on his Logia Cursed Fruit powers. Weapons Ace carries around a knife but is never seen using it. However, in flashbacks of attempts to assassinate Whitebeard, Ace was shown using various weapons, including an axe and a knife. As a child, he used a long bo staff made from pipe as a weapon. History Growing Up with Team Natsu, Luffy and Sabo Bound as Family and Brothers The Path to Piracy Synopsis Alabasta Saga Reunion with Luffy, Natsu, Gray, and Erza Major Battles Trivia & References Category:Humans Category:Male Category:Spirit Will of D. Category:Gol Family Category:Batelira Characters Category:Protagonists Category:Allies Category:Pirates Category:Whitebeard Pirates Category:Pirate Captains Category:Straw Hat Pirates' Allies Category:Fairy Tail's Allies Category:Team Natsu's Allies Category:Dadan Family Category:Cursed Fruit Users Category:Logia Cursed Fruit Users Category:Polearm Wielders Category:Haki Users Category:Martial Artists Category:Flashback Introduction Category:Impel Down Prisoners Category:Former Impel Down Prisoners Category:Deceased